Colin Edwards confirms move to BMW-Suter

Colin Edwards has confirmed that he will race a BMW-powered Suter in the 2012 MotoGP World Championship. The Texan will end a seven-year association with Yamaha when he switches to Forward Racing, which is joining the premier-class as one of the new Claiming Rule Team (CRT) entries. CRTs, basically privateer constructors, will receive extra concessions in terms of engine changes and fuel capacity to help them compete with the confirmed 1000cc Manufacturer bikes from Honda, Yamaha and Ducati.

Edwards had initially hoped to continue his Yamaha and Tech 3 links by using an R1-based engine and Tech 3 chassis, but at Sepang on Thursday the 12-time grand prix podium finisher confirmed he will race the BMW-Suter.

Speaking in the press conference ahead of the Sepang race, Edwards said: “It’s a BMW/Suter which is what I signed for in the beginning, and I’m happy to be working with those guys. We’ll have to go out there and work and test. It’s probably not going to be competitive in the first race, maybe not in the last race, but we’ll work extremely hard to build it.”

Currently ninth in the standings the popular veteran admitted that the ‘new adventure’ would be a lot of work but was ultimately a supporter of the new CRT initiative, “Our sport has a dream and a vision, everybody wants to see closer, competitive racing in MotoGP like it is in Moto2… Somebody has to start it.”